Alan Lightman
Encyclopedia
Alan Lightman is an American
physicist
, writer
, and social entrepreneur. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and the author of the international bestseller Einstein's Dreams
. He was the first professor at MIT to receive a joint appointment in the sciences and the humanities.
. His father was Richard Lightman, a movie theater owner, and his mother, Jeanne Garretson, a dancing teacher and volunteer Braille typist.
From an early age, he was interested in both science and the arts and, while in high school, began independent science projects and writing poetry. His unusual combination of talents in both science and creative writing drew attention as he won city and state-wide science fairs as well as the state-wide competition for the National Council of Teachers of English award. He graduated from White Station High School
in Memphis and is a personal friend of Oscar winner Kathy Bates
, a member of his graduating class. Lightman received his AB degree in physics from Princeton University
in 1970, magna cum laude
, where he was Phi Beta Kappa
. He earned his Ph.D.
in theoretical physics
from the California Institute of Technology
in 1974, where he had received a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship. His thesis
advisor was relativist Kip Thorne
. From 1974 to 1976, Lightman was a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics
at Cornell University
. During this period, he began publishing poetry
in small literary magazine
s. He was an Assistant Professor of astronomy
at Harvard University
from 1976 to 1979 and from 1979 to 1989 a research scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
. In 1989, Lightman was appointed professor of science and writing and senior lecturer in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was the first professor at MIT to receive a joint appointment in science and the humanities. In 1995, he was appointed John Burchard Professor of Humanities at MIT, a position that he resigned in 2002 to allow himself more time for writing. He currently teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
as Adjunct Professor of Humanities.
wide application in astronomy [1]; his proof, with David L. Lee
, that all gravitation theories obeying the Weak Equivalence Principle
(the experimentally verified fact that all objects fall with the same acceleration in a gravitational field)
must be metric theories of gravity, that is, must describe gravity as a geometrical warping of time and space [2];
his discovery, independently with Roland Svensson of Sweden, of the negative heat behavior of optically thin, hot thermal plasmas dominated by electron-positron pairs, that is, the result
that adding energy to thin hot gases causes their temperature to decrease rather than increase [3]; and his work on unusual radiation processes, such as
unsaturated inverse Compton scattering, in thermal media, also with wide application in astrophysics [4]. His research articles have appeared in the Physical Review, the Astrophysical Journal, Reviews of Modern Physics, Nature, and other journals. In 1990 he chaired the science panel of the National Academy of Sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee. He is a past chair of the High Energy Division of the American Astronomical Society.
and moving to Science 82, The New Yorker
, and other magazines. Since that time, Lightman's essays, short fiction, and reviews have also appeared in The American Scholar, The Atlantic Monthly
, Boston Review, Dædalus
, Discover
, Exploratorium
, Granta
, Harper's Magazine
, Harvard Magazine, Inc Technology, Nature
, The New York Review of Books
, The New York Times
, Science 86, The Sciences
, Story, Technology Review
, and World Monitor.
Lightman's novel Einstein's Dreams
was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. It was runner up for the 1994 PEN New England / Boston Globe Winship Award. Einstein's Dreams was also the March 1998 selection for National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation
" Book Club. The novel has been used in numerous colleges and universities, in many cases for university-wide adoptions in "common-book" programs, and is one of the mostly widely used texts in American colleges today. Lightman's novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award in fiction and has been adopted by high school teachers of Advanced Placement English. In 2007 Lightman released his most recent novel, Ghost, an examination of the dichotomies of the physical world and the spiritual world, scepticism and faith, the natural and the supernatural, and science and religion. In 2009, Lightman published his first volume of poetry, a book-length narrative in verse titled
"Song of Two Worlds."
More than two dozen independent theatrical and musical productions have been based on Einstein's Dreams, including a production at Chicago's National Pastime Theater in 2000, produced and directed by Patrizia Acerra and Dawn Arnold; a production at Paradise Theater in New York in 2001, produced and directed by Paul Stancato and Brian Rhinehart; a production at the Culture Project Theater in New York in 2003, directed by Rebecca Holderness; a production at the People's Branch Theater in Nashville in 2003, adapted by Brian Niece and David Alford, directed by David Alford; a musical production at the Martin Segal Theater of CUNY
in New York in 2003, produced by Brian Schwartz with music and lyrics by Joshua Rosenblum and Joanne Lessner; a production by the Underground Railway Theater in Boston in 2006; and a production by the University of Memphis in 2006, under the direction of Gloria Baxter; a musical composition titled "In This World" by Paul Hoffman in 2000 and performed by the Silverwood Trio on their own CD; and a musical composition titled "When Einstein Dreams" by Nando Michelin in 2003 and performed by the Nando Michelin Group on a Double Times Record CD. A major musical adaptation is now being planned for the Prince Theater in Philadelphia, directed by Marjorie Samov.
place in Cambodia, a country in desperate need after essentially all of its educated class were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. In June 2005, the Harpswell Foundation completed a four-room school building in the village of Tramung Chrum, about 50 miles from Phnom Penh. In July 2006, the Foundation completed a dormitory and leadership center for college women in Phnom Penh, which allows outstanding women to attend college. This dormitory serves all the colleges in Phnom Penh and is one of the first dormitories for women in Cambodia. Not having a safe place to live while attending college has been the major obstacle preventing young women from outside Phnom Penh (over 90% of the population) to receive a college education. Colleges in Cambodia do not provide housing for their students. Male students can live in the Buddhist temples, but female students cannot. The dormitory and leadership center houses 36 women, who have been selected on the basis of their intelligence, ambition, and leadership potential. In addition to providing free housing, food, and medical care, the facility gives these young women free classes in English and computer skills; readings and discussion of current events in Cambodia and the world to develop their critical thinking skills; and a weekly leadership seminar. In 2010, the Harpswell Foundation completed a second dormitory and leadership center for college women in Phnom Penh, housing 48 young women. The new facility has a large conference room, called the Hall of Great Women, where we hold national conferences on the theme of women's empowerment. For further information, please see the website of the Harpswell Foundation.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and social entrepreneur. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
and the author of the international bestseller Einstein's Dreams
Einstein's Dreams
Einstein's Dreams is a 1992 novel by Alan Lightman that was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. It was runner up for the 1994 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Einstein's Dreams was also the March 1998 selection for National Public Radio's "Talk of the...
. He was the first professor at MIT to receive a joint appointment in the sciences and the humanities.
Biography
Lightman was born in Memphis, TennesseeMemphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. His father was Richard Lightman, a movie theater owner, and his mother, Jeanne Garretson, a dancing teacher and volunteer Braille typist.
From an early age, he was interested in both science and the arts and, while in high school, began independent science projects and writing poetry. His unusual combination of talents in both science and creative writing drew attention as he won city and state-wide science fairs as well as the state-wide competition for the National Council of Teachers of English award. He graduated from White Station High School
White Station High School
White Station High School is a public high school in Memphis, Tennessee, United States .White Station High is a member of the Memphis City Schools system. White Station is recognized as one of the best high schools in Memphis, as well as in all of Tennessee...
in Memphis and is a personal friend of Oscar winner Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
, a member of his graduating class. Lightman received his AB degree in physics from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1970, magna cum laude
Latin honors
Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. This system is primarily used in the United States, Canada, and in many countries of continental Europe, though some institutions also use the English translation of these...
, where he was Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...
. He earned his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in theoretical physics
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
from the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
in 1974, where he had received a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship. His thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
advisor was relativist Kip Thorne
Kip Thorne
Kip Stephen Thorne is an American theoretical physicist, known for his prolific contributions in gravitation physics and astrophysics and for having trained a generation of scientists...
. From 1974 to 1976, Lightman was a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. During this period, he began publishing poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in small literary magazine
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
s. He was an Assistant Professor of astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
from 1976 to 1979 and from 1979 to 1989 a research scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is one of the largest and most diverse astrophysical institutions in the world, where scientists carry out a broad program of research in astronomy, astrophysics, earth and space sciences, and science education...
. In 1989, Lightman was appointed professor of science and writing and senior lecturer in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was the first professor at MIT to receive a joint appointment in science and the humanities. In 1995, he was appointed John Burchard Professor of Humanities at MIT, a position that he resigned in 2002 to allow himself more time for writing. He currently teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
as Adjunct Professor of Humanities.
Scientific work
In his scientific work, Lightman has made fundamental contributions to the theory of astrophysical processes under extreme temperatures and densities. In particular, his research has focused on relativistic gravitation theory, the structure and behavior of accretion disks, stellar dynamics, radiative processes, and relativistic plasmas. Some of his significant achievements are his discovery, with Douglas Eardley, of a structural instability in orbitting disks of matter, called accretion disks, that form around massive condensed object such as black holes, withwide application in astronomy [1]; his proof, with David L. Lee
David L. Lee
David Li Lee is a Taiwanese-American business executive and venture capitalist, best known as a co-founder of Global Crossing Ltd.Lee is a graduate of McGill University. He received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Caltech in 1974, with a minor in economics...
, that all gravitation theories obeying the Weak Equivalence Principle
(the experimentally verified fact that all objects fall with the same acceleration in a gravitational field)
must be metric theories of gravity, that is, must describe gravity as a geometrical warping of time and space [2];
his discovery, independently with Roland Svensson of Sweden, of the negative heat behavior of optically thin, hot thermal plasmas dominated by electron-positron pairs, that is, the result
that adding energy to thin hot gases causes their temperature to decrease rather than increase [3]; and his work on unusual radiation processes, such as
unsaturated inverse Compton scattering, in thermal media, also with wide application in astrophysics [4]. His research articles have appeared in the Physical Review, the Astrophysical Journal, Reviews of Modern Physics, Nature, and other journals. In 1990 he chaired the science panel of the National Academy of Sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee. He is a past chair of the High Energy Division of the American Astronomical Society.
Literary work
In 1981, Lightman began publishing essays about science, the human side of science, and the "mind of science", beginning with SmithsonianSmithsonian (magazine)
Smithsonian is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970.-History:...
and moving to Science 82, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, and other magazines. Since that time, Lightman's essays, short fiction, and reviews have also appeared in The American Scholar, The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, Boston Review, Dædalus
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, Discover
Discover (magazine)
Discover is an American science magazine that publishes articles about science for a general audience. The monthly magazine was launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It was sold to Family Media, the owners of Health, in 1987. Walt Disney Company bought the magazine when Family Media went out of...
, Exploratorium
Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is a museum in San Francisco with over 475 participatory exhibits, all of them made onsite, that mix science and art. It also aims to promote museums as informal education centers....
, Granta
Granta
Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
, Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, Harvard Magazine, Inc Technology, Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
, The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Science 86, The Sciences
The Sciences
The Sciences was published from 1961 to 2001 by the New York Academy of Sciences. Each issue contained articles that discussed science issues with cultural relevance, illustrated with fine art and an occasional cartoon. The periodical won seven National Magazine Awards over the course of its...
, Story, Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
, and World Monitor.
Lightman's novel Einstein's Dreams
Einstein's Dreams
Einstein's Dreams is a 1992 novel by Alan Lightman that was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. It was runner up for the 1994 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Einstein's Dreams was also the March 1998 selection for National Public Radio's "Talk of the...
was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. It was runner up for the 1994 PEN New England / Boston Globe Winship Award. Einstein's Dreams was also the March 1998 selection for National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation is a talk radio program based in the United States, produced by National Public Radio, and is broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Its focus is current events and controversial issues....
" Book Club. The novel has been used in numerous colleges and universities, in many cases for university-wide adoptions in "common-book" programs, and is one of the mostly widely used texts in American colleges today. Lightman's novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award in fiction and has been adopted by high school teachers of Advanced Placement English. In 2007 Lightman released his most recent novel, Ghost, an examination of the dichotomies of the physical world and the spiritual world, scepticism and faith, the natural and the supernatural, and science and religion. In 2009, Lightman published his first volume of poetry, a book-length narrative in verse titled
"Song of Two Worlds."
More than two dozen independent theatrical and musical productions have been based on Einstein's Dreams, including a production at Chicago's National Pastime Theater in 2000, produced and directed by Patrizia Acerra and Dawn Arnold; a production at Paradise Theater in New York in 2001, produced and directed by Paul Stancato and Brian Rhinehart; a production at the Culture Project Theater in New York in 2003, directed by Rebecca Holderness; a production at the People's Branch Theater in Nashville in 2003, adapted by Brian Niece and David Alford, directed by David Alford; a musical production at the Martin Segal Theater of CUNY
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
in New York in 2003, produced by Brian Schwartz with music and lyrics by Joshua Rosenblum and Joanne Lessner; a production by the Underground Railway Theater in Boston in 2006; and a production by the University of Memphis in 2006, under the direction of Gloria Baxter; a musical composition titled "In This World" by Paul Hoffman in 2000 and performed by the Silverwood Trio on their own CD; and a musical composition titled "When Einstein Dreams" by Nando Michelin in 2003 and performed by the Nando Michelin Group on a Double Times Record CD. A major musical adaptation is now being planned for the Prince Theater in Philadelphia, directed by Marjorie Samov.
Other major projects
In 1999, Lightman founded the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower a new generation of women leaders in Cambodia and the developing world, specifically through housing, education, and leadership training. The Foundation is funded from the donations of private individuals, foundations, and corporations. All major projects of the Foundation so far have takenplace in Cambodia, a country in desperate need after essentially all of its educated class were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. In June 2005, the Harpswell Foundation completed a four-room school building in the village of Tramung Chrum, about 50 miles from Phnom Penh. In July 2006, the Foundation completed a dormitory and leadership center for college women in Phnom Penh, which allows outstanding women to attend college. This dormitory serves all the colleges in Phnom Penh and is one of the first dormitories for women in Cambodia. Not having a safe place to live while attending college has been the major obstacle preventing young women from outside Phnom Penh (over 90% of the population) to receive a college education. Colleges in Cambodia do not provide housing for their students. Male students can live in the Buddhist temples, but female students cannot. The dormitory and leadership center houses 36 women, who have been selected on the basis of their intelligence, ambition, and leadership potential. In addition to providing free housing, food, and medical care, the facility gives these young women free classes in English and computer skills; readings and discussion of current events in Cambodia and the world to develop their critical thinking skills; and a weekly leadership seminar. In 2010, the Harpswell Foundation completed a second dormitory and leadership center for college women in Phnom Penh, housing 48 young women. The new facility has a large conference room, called the Hall of Great Women, where we hold national conferences on the theme of women's empowerment. For further information, please see the website of the Harpswell Foundation.
Awards and honors
- Finalist for 2000 National Book Award in fiction for The Diagnosis
- Finalist for the 2005 Massachusetts Book Award for A Sense of the Mysterious
- Association of American Publishers' Award for best science book of 1990 for Origins
- Literary Light of the Boston Public Library
- Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Bowdoin College in 2005
- Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Memphis College of Arts in 2006
- Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country in 2006
- Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell in 2010
- Birthday Salute by Garrison Keillor on NPR, November 28, 2008
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1996 Andrew Gemant AwardAndrew Gemant AwardThe Andrew Gemant Award is a prize awarded by the American Institute of Physics to a person who has made substantial cultural, artistic, or humanistic contributions to physics.. The award is named after Andrew Gemant....
of the American Institute of PhysicsAmerican Institute of PhysicsThe American Institute of Physics promotes science, the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies...
for linking science and the humanities - Distinguished Alumni Award of the California Institute of Technology in 2003
- Distinguished Arts and Humanities Medal for Literature of the Germantown Arts Alliance of Tennessee in 2003
- 2006 John P. McGovern Science and Society Award by Sigma Xi
- Gold Medal for humanitarian service to Cambodia, awarded by the government of Cambodia
Books
- Problem bookProblem bookProblem books are textbooks, usually at advanced undergraduate or post-graduate level, in which the material is organized as a series of problems, each with a complete solution given. Problem books are distinct from workbooks in that the problems are designed as a primary means of teaching, not...
in Relativity and Gravitation / Alan P. Lightman, W. H. Press, R. H. Press and S. A. Teulkolsky. - Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, (1975). - ISBN 0-691-08160-3 - Radiative Processes in Astrophysics / George B. Rybicki, Alan P. Lightman. - New York : Wiley, (1979). - (A Wiley-Interscience publication). Rev edition (2004): ISBN 0-471-82759-2
- Revealing the Universe : Prediction and Proof in Astronomy / edited by James Cornell and Alan P. Lightman. - Cambridge, Massachusetts , 1982 ISBN 0-262-03080-2
- Time Travel and Papa Joe’s Pipe / Alan P. Lightman ; with ten illustrations by Laszlo Kubinyi. - New York : Scribner, 1984. - ISBN 0-684-18112-6
- A Modern Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court : and Other Essays on Science. - New York : Viking Press, 1986. - ISBN 0-670-81239-0
- Origins : the Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists / Alan Lightman and Roberta Brawer. - Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1990. - ISBN 0-674-64470-0
- Ancient Light : Our Changing View of the Universe. - Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1991. - ISBN 0-674-03362-0
- Great Ideas in Physics. - New York : McGraw-Hill, 1992. - ISBN 0-07-037935-1
- Time for the Stars : Astronomy in the 1990s. - New York, Viking Press, 1992. - ISBN 0-670-83976-0
- Einstein's DreamsEinstein's DreamsEinstein's Dreams is a 1992 novel by Alan Lightman that was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. It was runner up for the 1994 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Einstein's Dreams was also the March 1998 selection for National Public Radio's "Talk of the...
. - New York : Pantheon Books, 1993. - ISBN 0-679-41646-3 - Good Benito. - New York : Pantheon Books, 1994. - ISBN 0-679-43614-6
- Dance for Two : Selected Essays. - New York : Pantheon Books, 1996. - ISBN 0-679-75877-1
- Great Ideas in Physics, 2nd ed. - New York : McGraw-Hill, 1997. - ISBN 0-07-038048-1
- Great Ideas in Physics : the Conservation of Energy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Theory of Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics. - 3rd ed. - New York : McGraw-Hill, 2000. - ISBN 0-07-135738-6
- The Diagnosis. - New York : Pantheon Books, 2000. - ISBN 0-375-72550-4
- The World is Too Much with Me : Finding Private Space in the Wired World. - Toronto : Hart House, University of Toronto, 2002. - (The Hart House lecture ; 2). - ISBN 0-9694382-2-2
- Reunion. - New York : Pantheon Books, 2003. - ISBN 0-375-42167-X
- Living With the Genie : Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery / edited by Alan Lightman, Daniel Sarewitz, Christina Desser. - Washington, DC : Island Press , 2003. - ISBN 1-55963-419-7
- Heart of the Horse / photographs by Juliet Van Otteren ; foreword by Jane Goodall ; text by Alan Lightman. - New York : Barnes & Noble, 2004. - ISBN 0-7607-5927-8
- The Discoveries : Great Breakthroughs in 20th Century Science. - New York : Pantheon Books, 2005. - ISBN 0-375-42168-8
- A Sense of the Mysterious : Science and the Human Spirit. - New York : Pantheon Books, 2005. - ISBN 0-375-42320-6
- Ghost. - New York : Pantheon Books, October 2007. - ISBN 978-0-375-42169-3
- Song of Two Worlds. - Natick MA : AK Peters, 2009. - ISBN 978-1-56881-463-6
Articles
- "A Brief Version of Time", The New York Times, Op-Ed Page, February 8, 1993.
- "The Uncertainty Principle," Technology Review, April 1996; also published under the title "Seasons"
- "Hallelujah," in A Place Within, ed. Jodi Daynard (New York: W.W. Norton) (1996)
- "The Contradictory Genius," The New York Review of Books, March 20, 1997.
- "A Cataclysm of Thought" The Atlantic Monthly, January 1999.
- "One Stuff," Harvard Magazine, July-August 1999.
- "In God's Place," The New York Times Magazine, September 19, 1999.
- "The Writing Life," The Washington Post, Book World, April 23, 2000.
- "Portrait of the Writer as a Young Scientist," The New York Times, Science Times, May 9, 2000.
- "Capturing the Light," The New York Times, Op-Ed page, February 7, 2001.
- "In the Name of Love?," Nature, October 8, 2001.
- "Prisoners of the Wired World," Globe and Mail (Canada), March 16, 2002.
- "Megaton Man," New York Review of Books, May 23, 2002.
- "The Art of Science," New Scientist, December 28, 2002.
- "The Lure of Genius," Seed, Jan/Feb 2003.
- "Art that Transfigures Science," The New York Times, Arts and Ideas, March 15, 2003.
- "The World is Too Much with Me" in Living with the Genie, ed. Chris Deser, Alan Lightman, and Daniel Sarewitz
- "A Sense of the Mysterious," Daedalus, Fall 2003
- "Spellbound by the Eternal Riddle," The New York Times, Science Times, November 11, 2003
- "The Power of Books " (Letter from Cambodia), Boston Globe, Op-Ed, January 18, 2004
- "Einstein and Newton," Scientific American, September 2004
- "The Twilight Zone," in Prime Time, ed. Douglas Bauer (New York: Crown) (2004)
- "A Tale of Two Loves," Nature, March 17, 2005
- "The Second Law of Thermodynamics," Physics Today, May 2005
- "Red, White, and Bamboo," (Second Letter from Cambodia), The New York Times, Op-Ed Page, July 5, 2005
- "Wheels of Fortune," Science & Spirit, May-June 2006
- Tick Tock Watch the Clock, Globe and Mail, March 10, 2007
External links
- Lightman's Website at MIT
- The Harpswell Foundation
- Garrison Keillor's birthday salute to Lightman on NPR
- Interview with Robert Birnbaum of Identitythory.com
- Online audio interview with NPR about science and art
- Review of Einstein's Dreams
- Alan Lightman speaks with Jenny Attiyeh on ThoughtCastThoughtcastThoughtCast is a Podcast and public radio interview program with authors and academics. The interviews are conducted by Jenny Attiyeh, a former public radio and TV reporter from Manhattan and elsewhere whose previous work focused on covering the arts and ideas...
about his new book, Ghost - Interview with Jim Dawson for Inside Science
- Lightman's work in Cambodia featured in The International Herald Tribune
- "On Point" interview with NPR, about science and religion, and Ghost
- Interview on NPR's Radio Lab about nature of science